The Mandel Files (87 page)

“So it would make a lot of sense for you to be working on third, fourth, even fifth alternatives,” Eleanor mused.

“Yes, absolutely. But we’re not.”

“What other embryonic technologies could supply the rise in industrial demand?” Greg asked. “And more importantly, who is working on them?”

“Grandpa?”

“Easy enough, m’girl. There are really only five viable candidates. Jetstream turbines, when you tether large vacuum bubbles twelve kilometres up and fit them out with giant rotor blades. The wind velocities up there are pretty impressive. Next, you’ve got cold fusion.”

Cormac grunted disparagingly. But when Julia looked at him, he just moued and went back to gazing out of the window.

“Well they might crack it,” Philip said grumpily. “I’m just listing options.”

“Go on, Grandpa.”

“Microfusion reactors, which is a sort of advanced version of cold fusion, using molecular-scale compression techniques to fuse extremely small clusters of deuterium atoms in a gizmo the size of a processor chip. Something that small does away with the heat sink problems you get in tokamaks, but you’d need to group a lot of reactors together to produce a decent output. Ocean current turbines. But there’s a question mark over which currents. Gulf Stream, Mozambique current, the Kuro Shio, East Australian current, Cape Horn current; they’re all possibles, but they’re all remote from Europe. Then there’s solar satellites. Cheap and practical, especially now we’ve got the Clarke spaceplane. But there isn’t a government in the world that’ll grant a licence to site a receiver array. Too many environmental—or rather environmentalist—problems when it comes to beaming energy through the atmosphere.”

“Who is researching them?” Greg asked.

“Apart from the powersats, just about every kombinate, plus dozens of universities under government contract. The whole world needs an energy source which won’t add to the Greenhouse effect.”

Julia clasped her hands together, mind devouring the problem eagerly. She didn’t even need to bring the nodes on line. “Grandpa, are there any research teams working on boron proton fusion?”

“Yes, several.”

“OK, compile a list of the twenty-five most promising research and design teams for boron proton reactors, and each of the other projects you mentioned, then cross-reference them with Diessenburg Mercantile.”

“Gotcha, girl.”

“Isn’t that one of our banks?” Morgan asked.

“Yes.” She told them about the conversation with Karl Flildebrandt;

“Interesting,” Greg said. “I wish I’d been there.”

“Got one, Juliet,” Philip said. He sounded slightly apprehensive, which was unusual. “The Randon company. They have a loan package of eight hundred and fifty million Eurofrancs with Diessenburg Mercantile, two hundred million New Sterling. Two-thirds of it was spent constructing a laboratory complex outside Reims, which is dedicated to investigating microfusion techniques.”

“Has to be,” Morgan said quietly.

“Randon also sponsor Nicholas Beswick,” Philip said flatly. Greg sat up straight, staring at the terminal at the head of the table.

“No such thing as coincidence,” Gabriel said. It came out almost as a challenge.

Greg glanced at her fleetingly. “No,” he said firmly.

“Oh, come on, Greg. Psi isn’t perfect.”

“Tell you, if it had been any one of the others, I would have said, maybe. But Beswick, no chance.”

“If you say so,” she looked away, uninterested.

“This is all based on very spurious assumptions,” Cormac said.

“Yeah, maybe,” Greg said. He sounded troubled. “Royan, this rumour about Kitchener working on boron proton fusion, did it exist before he was snuffed?”

YES YES YES. HEAVY DUTY SPECULATION AS SOON AS EVENT HORIZON PAYMENTS WERE MADE TO HIS BANK ACCOUNT

“For Christ’s sake,” Morgan said tightly.

SORRY BUT PEOPLE LIKE KITCHENER ARE ALWAYS BEING SCANNED BY HOTRODS. HIS WORK IS INTERESTING, NOT TO MENTION COMMERCIAL.

“But nobody knew for certain what he was doing, right?” Greg persisted.

RIGHT THE LIGHTWARE CRUNCHER AT LAUNDE WASN’T PLUGGED INTO ANY DATANETS. KITCHENER PROBABLY DIDN’T WANT TO RISK HAVING DATA-SNATCHES RUN AGAINST HIM. SMART MAN. THAT’S WHY THERE WAS THE INTEREST IN HIM.

The lines on Greg’s face deepened, he looked down at the table, lost in contemplation. Eleanor gave him a concerned glance.

Julia found the level of almost unconscious devotion between them was utterly enchanting. Chiding herself for peeking.

“It couldn’t be Nicholas Beswick,” Eleanor said, “because he knew Kitchener wasn’t working on boron proton fusion for Event Horizon. So he wouldn’t have wiped the Bendix, would he?”

Greg let out a relieved sounding sigh, and smiled at her. “I think I’ll put a bonus in your wage packet.”

She grinned back.

“Exactly what was Kitchener working on for you?” Gabriel asked.

“Wormhole physics.” Cormac started to explain.

Julia was moderately surprised Morgan hadn’t told Gabriel about the research contract. He must take need-to-know far more seriously than she’d ever imagined. She didn’t know whether to be amused at the notion or not.

“A stardrive!” Gabriel said incredulously when Ranasfari finished. She looked at Julia for confirmation.

“Yes, ‘fraid so.” Schooldays discipline rescued her once again. But Gabriel’s expression did look so funny, probably the same as hers when Cormac had first confronted her about having the murder solved.

“Royan,” Greg said slowly. “Was there any hint of that on the circuit?”

NO NO NO. NO! WOW A STARDRIVE, ULTRA EXCLAMATION MARK. HOW FAR HAD HE GOT?

“There was no prospect of him ever developing a stardrive mechanism,” Cormac Ranasfari said, distaste at the idea showing on his compact face. “Edward was simply working on the physics which could open the opportunity for theoretical instantaneous transit.”

“Did this research involve neurohormones at all?” Greg asked.

“Most certainly. Edward was attempting to formulate a themed neurohormone which would enable him to investigate the possibility of CTCs existing. He and I considered that to be the most promising route to verification.”

“CTCs?” Greg clicked his fingers. “Nicholas Beswick mentioned them. What is one?”

Cormac maintained a blankly impassive expression. Julia knew he was disappointed, having to explain concepts which were so obvious.

“A Closed Timelike Curve is a loop through space-time.”

“No messing?” Greg appeared so innocently interested.

“It has been postulated that they exist on a sub-microscopic scale, forming space-time; approximately ten to the minus power thirty-five metres wide and stretching back ten to the minus power forty-two seconds. Theoretically you could use one to travel into the past.”

“What about creating a paradox?” Gabriel asked, there was bright interest in her eyes. “Killing your own grandfather?”

“If you killed him ten to the minus forty-two of a second ago instead of right here in the present, how would you know?” Morgan asked mildly. “I don’t think you’d notice a vast difference.”

She waved him down irritably, concentrating on Cormac.

“Yes, the classic question,” Cormac said politely. “Travelling back to kill your grandfather before your father was born, thus creating a paradox. If your grandfather was killed how could you have been born to travel back to kill him? This is a null question, because quantum cosmology allows for multiple parallel universes, an infinite stack of space-times with identical physical parameters except each one has a different history—Hitler triumphant, J. F. Kennedy never killed, the PSP remaining in power. If CTCs do exist, the multiple histories will interconnect, effectively integrating the parallel universes into a unified family and facilitating travel between them. In this instance quantum mechanics permits the establishment of as many connected universes as there are variant outcomes of the time traveller’s actions. So you can travel back in time to kill your grandfather, because in another universe, the one you travelled from, your grandfather will remain alive to conceive your father.”

“Yes.” Gabriel sucked her cheeks in. “Whenever I looked into the future, I saw multiple probabilities; the further into the future the more probabilities there were, and the wilder they became.”

“Wilder?” Julia asked, fascinated.

“Improbable. Mammoths roaming round in Siberia, the Greenhouse effect suddenly reversing, obscure politicians becoming statesmen, weird religions taking hold. I never looked too far,” she added contritely.

Because death haunted those extremes, Julia completed privately.

“Had you looked back in time, you would have seen that same multiplication of alternatives,” Cormac said. “That is what Edward hoped to see.”

“What?” Gabriel asked sharply.

“To look in the past.”

“You said Kitchener was developing a neurohormone to perceive CTCs, not look into the past,” Greg said.

Cormac’s smile was wintry. “But don’t you see, that’s the same thing. Edward theorized that CTCs are the basis of psychic ability.”

Greg and Gabriel exchanged a glance bordering on pained anxiety. What made him think that?” Greg asked.

“These microscopic holes through space-time are too small for physical objects to pass through, so he suggested that they facilitate the exchange of pure data. Your mind, Mr Mandel, is quite literally connected with billions, trillions, of other minds; a vast repository of visual images, smells, tastes, and memories. This so-called psychic trait in certain humans is no more than a superior interpretation ability, you can make sense of our cosmological heritage, filter out the scream of the white noise jumble, pick over the bones.”

“If that’s true, then how could I reach as far as I can? You said these CTCs are microscopic.”

“Indeed, but there are so many of them. If you go down one of these wormholes, back in time for that fraction of a second, move an infinitesimal distance, you will be able to find another CTC at its terminus, perhaps several, and that connection will allow you to extend another increment further outward. You understand? It is like a chain, appallingly convoluted, which accounts for the limits in range you experience, but a clear link none the less, stretching across infinity, and up and down eternity.”

“But I could see into the future,” Gabriel said. “How could these CTCs produce that effect? You said they go back in time.”

“They do. But the now we are in is the past of the futures you perceived.”

“Yes,” said Gabriel, though she sounded unconvinced.

“However, by itself looking into the future isn’t sufficient to prove the existence of CTCs. Psychic is such a prejudicial term, you see, people have always laid claim to the power of foresight. But if CTCs exist, then the past should be available on an equal basis. Edward hoped that by producing a neurohormone capable of opening up the past in the way that precognition opens up the future he would make a case for microscopic CTCs which would be irrefutable. There could be very few alternative explanations.”

“Julia?” Greg’s voice was dead, devoid of all inflection. Everyone looked at him. What was the result of the analysis On those ampoules Eleanor gave you?”

She had some trouble forming the words, her throat had dried up as soon as she started thinking about the implications. “The laboratory said it was a themed neurohormone, sharing some characteristics with the standard precognition formula. But it’s not a type they were familiar with.”

“Edward succeeded in formulating a retrospection neurohormone?” Cormac asked with a feverish note of hope.

“Looks that way, doesn’t it.” Greg was staring at Gabriel. Julia saw she had gone quite white, her hands were trembling slightly.

“No,” Morgan said. He didn’t use a loud voice, but the authority he conveyed was final. He took hold of Gabriel’s hand. “You’re not infusing it.”

“Who else can?” she answered. “My temporal ability is a proven one.”

“You are proposing to use it?” Cormac asked, he blinked owlishly at Gabriel. “Why? We don’t even know if it works, all Edward’s records were erased.”

Julia cursed under her breath. It was a perpetual mystery to her how someone as smart as Cormac could be so oblivious to the problems of life itself. “If it enables us to look into the past, we can use it to see who killed Kitchener,” she told him, using the strained tone reserved for making company divisional managers wish they’d never been born.

Cormac opened his mouth to speak, then glanced at Gabriel, blushing furiously. “I.. . I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. This whole series of events has been extremely stressful...”

He trailed off.

“I’ll infuse it,” Eleanor said.

“No bloody chance!” Greg snapped.

“Why not? These themed neurohormones are designed to amplify single psi traits. Anyone with even a faintly psionic ability should be able to infuse one. And you always say I’m sensitive.”

Greg’s face darkened. “That’s hardly a qualified objective opinion.”

“What have we got to lose? If it doesn’t work, there’s no disaster, we simply carry on the investigation as before. If it does work, we find out who the murderer is.”

It was quite peculiar; Julia was watching Greg gather himself for a tirade, desperately trying to think of some way she could defuse the situation before it degenerated into a vicious personal row. She knew from past experience just how forceful Greg could get when he was really upset. And Eleanor was just as bad. Both of them complete stubborn-heads. But something happened, because Greg suddenly gave Eleanor a perplexed, almost awestruck, stare, and sat back limply in his seat, his anger visibly draining away.

“What is it?” Eleanor asked. She was frowning at his behaviour.”

“Nothing.”

Which Julia didn’t believe for a second.

“You mean you don’t object?” Eleanor said, suspicion charging her voice.

He gave her a lame grin. “No.”

“Oh.”

Julia looked at Morgan for guidance, but all he could manage was a confused grimace. She couldn’t think what had made Greg change his mind so abruptly. The mood swing had struck him so swiftly she was tempted to call it a revelation.